


More Things in Heaven and Earth

by AndreaLyn



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 05:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3679830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the dust settles from Nero's attack, Kirk spends his time trying to graduate from the Academy and receiving advice from strangers in the library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Things in Heaven and Earth

When the wreckage clears from the  _Narada_  and the crew gets back to Earth, things go back to a disturbing sense of normality that Jim never expected. He doesn’t see Bones as much because the man is busy overseeing a new regiment of physical therapy with Pike to get right back on the horse and remind his broken pieces of how to walk. Jim technically needs to finish an essay on ethics so he isn’t expelled from the Academy for his creative solution to the Kobayashi Maru problem, but other than that, things go on.  
  
It’s like the Earth (and Federation, both) needs something to focus on to assuage the strange survivor’s guilt that’s begun to plague a planet, all because  _they got lucky_.  
  
Jim’s been mired in textbooks for the past four hours, lost amidst ancient and antiquated tomes in the Academy library. His vision starts to blur together and he’s commed Bones twice to ask him to pick up some drugs to help with his tension headaches, but has received no response because he’s in the middle of yet another session with Pike.  
  
“You save the planet,” Jim complains as he shoves a book shut and reaches for another, “and this is how they repay you.”  
  
“It’s not exactly fair, no.”  
  
Jim jumps almost out of his skin. “Jesus!” he howls in panic, scrambling to grab something he can use as a weapon (the tome on ethics in current day politics is slim, definitely not enough to wound) against his would-be attacker. His surprise companion is an attractive man in his early sixties with graying hair (that might have been dark brown at one point in time) and a slim build, staring at him with wry bemusement – not exactly the profile of a serial killer, but you never know.   
  
“You scared the crap out of me,” he exhales. “How long have you been here?” He isn’t wearing a uniform, at least not one that Kirk recognizes. It’s on the tip of his tongue to crack a joke about the plaid shirt he’s wearing, but Bones once told him that people who wear plaid generally don’t take kindly to their sartorial choices being questioned.  
  
“Not long,” the man assures, reaching over to offer his hand. “David,” he introduces himself. “Couldn’t help noticing the man who saved the world.”  
  
Jim really, really hates that title.  
  
“I’m just another graduate,” he insists, trying to be humble in the face of dealing with some unwanted attention. “Look, I don’t know what the channels are saying about me...”  
  
“It’s pretty impressive stuff, to be sure,” David promises and closes the book he’d been reading. “You have to admit. It’s a hero’s tale. I like the version where your friend brings you on board.”  
  
“The true one?” Jim laughs. “Yeah, Bones got in deep shit for that, but I don’t want people to think he didn’t have a hand in this. He was...” Jim trails off and thinks to what he did, to what Bones did, to what they all did to come out the other side alive. “He took over an entire ship’s medical unit, performed a surgery that most men couldn’t do, and got me on the ship in the first place. I owe him everything,” Jim insists, shaking his head at how much he can’t believe he owes Bones.   
  
“...Bones?”  
  
“Yeah, that’s just my weird nickname for him,” Jim says with a grin. “When a guy starts rambling on about his bones on a shuttle and looking like he’s about to puke, it’s one of those things that sticks.”  
  
David seems quiet and Jim pushes around the books, trying to figure out if this is an awkward silence or if he should let it ride.  
  
“It’s not like he was a mess after things calmed down, but there was some heavy shit that went down just before I met him and...and hell, it’s not my story to tell,” Jim insists. “He’s a damn good friend to have on your side. The kind of guy who makes his father proud.” Maybe Jim shouldn’t be rambling on like this, but in the aftermath of the disaster, he’s been a little more over-the-top about being thankful for the people he has. If not for them, Jim wouldn’t be around – hell, whole  _planets_  wouldn’t even be around.  
  
“He sounds like a good man,” Jim’s companion muses, almost hiding an amused smile. “I’m sure that your father’s proud of you, too. It’s hard not to notice your name,” he says apologetically.  
  
Jim freezes up. Of all the things he expected to have to think about in the privacy of a library, his father’s death and Jim’s own accomplishments hadn’t been one of them. Still, the shadow of the  _Kelvin_  is a hard thing to escape, especially when it shadows Jim’s whole life.   
  
“You know,” Jim says, laughing sardonically as he shakes his head, “You’d think at a certain point in my life, I would get used to the part where everything I do gets measured against my father, but people keep surprising me.”  
  
“You think it’s just you? I have a son about your age,” David assures Jim with a tone that offers very little in the way of sympathy. “And he’s always measured to my accomplishments, no matter what I have to say about it. I don’t like the fact that he has to live up to the world’s expectation that he surpass the father.”  
  
Jim quiets for a moment, but he can’t help the hot burden against his chest that says he’s still irritated with the situation.  
  
“But I’m sure, Jim,” David says, softer now, “that your father is proud of you. The whole world is grateful to you for your actions and there’s Kirk in them, all the way through. They see it. He sees it, too.”  
  
“Yeah, wherever he is,” Jim scoffs.   
  
“There’s more to life than just living, Jim Kirk,” the man says as he rises to his feet. “To think that there aren’t people who care for you in the beyond is short-sighted. And I didn’t think a genius like you would be so quick to write away things that cannot be explained.”  
  
“...im.  _Jim!_ ”  
  
Jim stares at David for a long moment, barely registering Bones’ voice behind him. He finally turns to see Bones looking wearier than ever – the man’s managed to acquire a set of permanent dark bags under his eyes since the  _Narada_. “Bones, I’m in the middle of something,” he jokes.  
  
“What, talking to yourself? Yeah, I see that,” McCoy says with a scoff. “C’mon, can we get out of here? I just finished seven hours between personal consults and tonight’s already a goddamn waste seeing as I’m probably spending it fielding calls from my mother and family.”  
  
“...they still worried about the disaster?”  
  
“No, just...Dad,” McCoy says, clapping Jim on the shoulder. “He passed away four years ago today. Come on, I got a bottle of scotch with my name on it and if you’re good, I might let you have a glass. Who were you talking to, anyway?”  
  
Jim opens his mouth to answer, gesturing over his shoulder.  
  
The man is gone. His book lies open on the table to the same page it had been on when Jim had first looked up and found himself joined in conversation. “No one,” Jim says, and then after a pause, he amends his statement. “Not someone easily explained, anyway.”  
  
He casts one last look back to his table and when he’s sure that there’s no one there, he thinks that maybe David just left or it’s a trick of the light or maybe Jim is just so exhausted that he’d made the whole thing up, anyway.  
  
“Let’s go drink to our fathers,” Jim says with great reverence and respect, before McCoy can ask what in hell Jim is talking about. “And how we’re surpassing all their expectations.”  
  
McCoy snorts heavily and pushes Jim out the front door with a friendly shove. “You sound like you’ve been getting rhetoric from my old man.”  
  
“Yeah, well, maybe he visited me from beyond the grave to make sure you’re giving the old man some respect,” Jim says with a smirk.  
  
“You’re already drunk, aren’t you?”  
  
Jim smiles as he follows Bones along the paths of campus, steered by habit and the bright moon shining above them. “Not yet, Bones. Not yet.”


End file.
